The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-12-03
CLEVERY WICKED.
Philadelphia Press.

newspaper correspondent, I found myself in little village of New Mex ico. Naturally in 80 small place my advent was noted, and on the second day of my stay lad came to me with the strange message that Jim Hag- gerty was dying, and wanted to see me. went to the small abode pointed out, but death had preceded me. The man was indeed "Old Jim," as he was familiarity called. had known him well some years before in California, where he was noted mining pros- pector, but had not met him since. His worn and haggard face recalled vividly to my mind "the great dia- mond swindle," of which he was a protector.
 had reported the affair at the time of it's occurrence but briefly, because, great as was its magnitude in the mighty flood of speculation which then engulfed the Golden State, it was but an episode in the passing show. The story of the swindle has never been written in full, think, and its recounting fills one of the most inter- esting pages in the history of the min- ing barons of California.
 Among the countless schemes to which the great banker Ralston, who loved to be called the Financial King of the Pacific Coast" devoted no small share of the California bank, of which he was president, was the exploiting of mines in the Pyramid range of moun- tains close to the border line which divides Arizona from New Mexico. This was in the early seventies, when speculation was rife and the discovery of bonanzas an every day event. Among the employees of Ralston in the Pyramid mines was one George Arnold, man of meager education, but bright and ambitious. In his shanty on the wild mountain side, and over his bacon and beans, he was ever dreaming of some plan that would bring dame fortune at his waiting feet and shower upon him her princely favors. He saw men making fortunes
 by single cast of the die and losing
 them by single throw. While yet dreaming his dream of wealth there came to him the bright story of the great diamond discoveries at
 Cape Colony. His teeming brain at once devised a scheme which, in its way, equaled Lows South Sea bubble.
 He had grown interruptions in his de- sire, and had come to believe that with him, at least, the end justified the means.
 The soil around the Pyramid dis
 trict was rich in color and had char acter enough to inaugurate any min- ing scheme, however wild and inn practicable. So vita & comrade, Jim Hagerty, with whom he had long been associated, Arnold made long tours over the surrounding country. After a few weeks of this kind of work he resigned his place in the mines with the given intention of seeking the fairer fields of Mexico.
 He next turned up in San Francisco in the fall of 1871. He immediately found Ralston and even astonished that bold operator by revealing that he had discovered in Arizona rich dia- mond- fields as extensive as those of Cape Colony. From the gripsack he had brought with him he poured forth wondrous display of trough di- amonds which had been washed from the yielding soil of the new find. They were many and apparently of value.
 Ralston, eyes ready for a venture, especially one which promised such dazzling results, entered at one time
 into a proposed exploration of the new diamond fields. He introduced
 Arnold to several leading capitalists, who at once became enthusiastic over the new Golconda. With the rapid action peculiar to Californians, the clique who had been let into the se- cret immediately determined to visit the mines, and, if found to be all right, to purchase Arnold's claims and titles for the modest but snug some of $1 900, ,O0O. Arnold reluctlantly &C., cepted the offer.
 In due course of time the party of
 capitalists interested left San Fran- cisco for the promised land. At Camp Ralston, the headquarters of the Pyramid mining speculation, the eAger capitalists were met by Arnold and Haggerty, the latter being intro duced as a sort of side partner, like the silent marines of the admiral of "H. M s. Pinafore"
 The two worthies were to conduct Ralston and his friends to the dia- mond- fields The party was led by . route as xig-zag as . snAke-fea,ce and q rough as cordury, road Part of Al Y